Elsie and Fred is an up and coming brand in the fashion industry that is growing it’s exposure in the market through their high profile on social media, significantly Instagram. Elsie and Fred are a women’s clothing brand that specialises in “festival style”, selling brightly-coloured clothing and products predominantly covered in glitter; every item listed on their website it eye-catching to say the least.
Analysing their website, it is clear that, as a typical fashion brand, their role of the website is transactional. They are selling you their products rather than informing you on their brand and what they do as a company; it is all based around customer interaction with the website and how they navigate around it. On first glance of their website, they have a navigation bar that helps customers and visitors find whatever they are looking for, as well as keeping them up to date with new trends, which is typically important to those interested in fashion that they are most likely targetting.
Consumer Segmentation
Elsie and Fred as a brand is definitely targetting towards a younger demographic of women that are more likely to purchase clothing for festivals and events. Their large influence on social media may link to the target audience they are trying to attract, as they are more likely to have a presence online. They are based in London, UK, meaning that they are most likely to obtain sales from the United kingdom, however they do offer shipping to the rest of the world, so will still create sales from overseas, also. In terms of demographics, we can paint a picture of what the “typical” Elsie and Fred customer may be. From the items sold on the website, we can highlight that it is typically females that would purchase items from their business. Age-wise, we would consider that their USP is festival and carnival clothing, therefore would highlight the demographic age of being late teens to early 20’s. Due to their colour schemes and “glittery” material, we could argue that they younger generation may also be interested in their products, however it is clear they are significantly targetted towards older teens. Usage patterns of the website will also link to their age and gender, as women aged between 16 and 24 are more likely to purchase clothing frequently online that men or any other age group (Statista, 2018). Being an online clothing company, Elsie and Fred will receive a large level of exposure, especially with their consumer market being more likely to make a purchase on their clothing compared to if they were targetting and an older audience or males.
By creating customer personas, the company are able to have a better insight in to what their customers want and need, as well as what they would most likely purchase from the brand. Using target audience and customer profiles of who is purchasing from, or even viewing, the website, the company will be able to boost sales and reach a higher audience.
Key Website Personas
The wesbite itself is full of bright colours and “90’s style” that is all utilised to attract their target audience. The high use of saturated pinks and purples is used throughout the website, and all the photos for the items they are selling have the same editing effects on them, meaning every item stands out just as much as the other. They use different photo links for various styles and trends that would be most popular for their customers, including bold prints, neon colours, ‘The Party Edit’ and also seasonal events, such as Halloween. Having a colour scheme that is targetted towards their target market is mst likely to boost sales as it is appealing to them in what they are looking for. Colours plays a key part in a company’s strategic marketing communication and advertising, particularly online (Puzakova, 2016), so Elsie and Fred have definitely taken this in to consideration for all their photos and their overall style of the website. Keeping to the ‘neon’ colour scheme, they keep their website eye-catching and desirable for their target market, keeping to them style of festival and party.
Improvements and Overall Evaluation
After analysing Elsie & Fred’s website it is clear that they understand their market and know what they have to do to obtain customers and make a profit from their products. From the perspective of the running and layout of their products, partnered with their images, utilisation of younger models and their highly saturate colour scheme, their website is aesthetically pleasing, especially for their target audience of older teens and young adults that would be searching for clothing for festivals as well as party wear.
If I had to make any suggestions for their website, it would be more focused towards their actual clothing items. Their target audience are those that will most likely have the least disposable income (Statista, 2018), and their products are significantly high due to their high quality. If they wanted to attract a larger audience to their site, they could include a “budget section”, which could entice more people to purchase items that are a little cheaper. In terms of their website, the layout and how well it runs, I do not have any improvements they could make and I believe that it is well-run and they have thought extensively on the layout and colour-scheme that runs throughout, becoming a creative selling point for their website.
References
- Elsie & Fred. (2018). Elsie and Fred – Online Boutique for Devils, Deviants & Delinquents. [online] Available at: https://www.elsieandfred.com/ [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018].
- Instagram.com. (2018). ELSIE & FRED (@elsieandfred) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/elsieandfred/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].
- Mean annual disposable income in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2016/2017, a. (2018). Mean disposable income per household, by age 2017 | UK Statistic. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/824464/mean-disposable-income-per-household-by-age-uk/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].
- Puzakova, M., Kwak, H., Ramanathan, S. and Rocereto, J. (2016). Painting Your Point: The Role of Color in Firms’ Strategic Responses to Product Failures via Advertising and Marketing Communications. Journal of Advertising, 45(4), pp.365-376.
- Share of individuals who purchased clothes and sports goods online in Great Britain in 2018, a. (2018). Online clothing purchasing by demographic Great Britain 2018 | Statistic. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/286096/clothes-and-sports-goods-online-purchasing-in-great-britain-by-demographic/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2018].
Please note: I am a student studying at university, and any information/opinion stated in this blog post is my own, and not from an academic source. This is purposely utilised for my ‘Digital Marketing’ module.
